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CDRfRIGHT DEPOSE 



FIVE POINTS 

FROM 

BARCLAY 

EDITED BY 
HENRY Wj WILBUR 



Philadelphia, Pa. 

Published by Friends' General Confer* 

ence Advancement Committee. 

1912 



3?* 



3 



Copyrighted in 1912 
By Henry W. Wilbur 



©CLA319448 



PREFACE. 

The matters dealt with in the following 
pages constitute an attempt to state and in- 
terpret certain positions taken by Robert 
Barclay, in his great work entitled "An 
Apology for the True Christian Divinity ; 
Being an Explanation and Vindication of the 
Principles and Doctrines of the People Called 
Quakers.' ' The quotations are all made from 
the edition of the Apology published by 
Friends' Book Store, (Orthodox) 304 Arch 
Street, Philadelphia, in 1877. 

We have not attempted to deal with the 
various ' 'Propositions' ' of Barclay by num- 
ber or in the order which he placed them. 
In the "Apology" "immediate Revelation" 
is the Second Proposition ; "The Universal 
and Saving Light, " is classed as Proposition 
Five and Six ; ' 'the Ministry' ' is Proposition 
Ten . ' 'Worship' ' is Proposition Eleven ; and 
"Justification" is Proposition Seven. 

Page Three 



Page Fotm 

The ' 'Apology' ' was published in 1675, 
and was printed in both Latin and English. 
Its main points were first used in a debate 
with some students who opposed the Friendly 
position. The debate was so successful, and 
the treatment of the points so confessedly 
telling, that they were elaborated into the 
Fifteen Propositions which made the full 
"Apology. 



INTRODUCTION. 

David Barclay, called by Whittier the 
"Laird of Ury, M was a soldier with what the 
military men call an honorable war record. 
But his whole life was changed from harsh- 
ness to gentleness when in 1666 he became 
a convinced Friend. He was a Scotchman 
to the manor born, and had fought under 
Gustavus Adolphus in the continental wars. 
His wife was Katherine Gordon, a descend- 
ant of a Scotch duke. 

The conversion of the old soldier was of 
itself important, but was of still greater mean- 
ing to the Society of Friends because of the 
effect this religious experience had on his 
son Robert, who was born at Edinburg in 
1648. Robert was eighteen when his father 
became a Friend, and in the following year 
the young man united with the Society, at 
that time the youngest in the family of Prot- 
estant organizations. 

Page Five 



Page Six 

Very soon after his convincement Robert 
began his active labors in behalf of the Truth, 
his first literary venture being an essay en- 
titled "Truth Cleared of Calumnies,' ' which 
appeared in 1670. From that time to the 
end of his life he was either writing or speak- 
ing in behalf of Friends' Principles, many 
different books and pamphlets having been 
written and circulated by him. He was also 
a famous debater, and on not a few occasions 
met the defenders of the Established Church 
or Non-conformist sects in open verbal com- 
bat. His greatest literary work was un- 
doubtedly the "Apology," mentioned in de- 
tail in the Preface. It is still the most at- 
tractive store-house in which to find a schol- 
arly presentation of seventeenth century 
Quaker ideas. 

Thomas Hodgkin, the English Friend, in 
his interesting book, "George Fox," pub- 
lished in 1896, tells us that Barclay's "Apol- 
ogy" was really a veiled attack upon the 
Westminster Confession of Faith, the creed 



Page Seven 

of the Presbyterian Church, which was 
adopted by the Westminster Assembly, in 
1646, just before George Fox began his ac- 
tive ministry. In proof of this Dr. Hodgkin 
says that the order of Barclay's Propositions 
follows almost the same line as the ques- 
tions in the Shorter Catechism, another im- 
portant production of the famous seventeenth 
century Assembly. That the early Friends 
had more controversy touching doctrine with 
the Presbyterians and Baptists than with the 
Established Church, is abundantly attested 
in the literature of the time. In fact, Fox 
and his followers were the most energetic 
opponents of Calvinism to be found in co- 
temporaneous England. 

Robert Barclay was a regular attender of 
meeting, and generally spoke in the religious 
assemblies which he attended. He really 
died before the system of recording ministers 
had become very general, but to all the 
Quaker intents and purposes he was a min- 
ister in the Society. In the short memorial 



Page Eight 

issued by George Fox after Barclay's death, 
he says of his young disciple : ' 'He was a wise 
and faithful minister of Christ, and wrote 
many precious books in the defense of the 
truth, both in English and Latin." William 
Penn called him a " worthy young man of 
God," which was high praise, indeed. 

In 1690, a year before the death of George 
Fox, Barclay passed away. His going was 
a very severe loss to the Society, not only of 
that period, but for all time. He was only 
forty-two at the time of his death, and had 
he lived, it is quite likely he would have en- 
riched the Friendly literature of the period 
by other productions of light and leading. 
If we may believe the Friends who knew him, 
and they included a large number of the lead- 
ers and members of the Society in general, 
he was a man of most exalted and consistent 
life, of gentle spirit and lovable character. 



IMMEDIATE REVELATION. 

Barclay's Second Proposition dealt with 
the affirmation that there is such a thing as 
immediate revelation. Probably the whole 
Protestant world would make such an affirma- 
tion to-day, although there might be a good 
deal of controversy over the definition as to 
what revelation is. In the seventeenth cent- 
ury, however, the opinion was pretty general, 
that revelation in the sense of God's direct 
revealing to the soul of man, ceased with the 
close of the New Testament canon. 

Over against the authority of the Script- 
ures, which Protestantism had set up as a 
dogma in opposition to the Catholic claim 
for the authority if not the infallibility of the 
Church, Barclay affirmed the authority of the 
Spirit, as the court of last resort in spiritual 
things. He tells us that those in his time 
who denied the revelation of God by his 
spirit, but said that it is not immediate and 

Page Nine 



Page Ten 

inward, but in the Scriptures, were wrong. 
He claimed "that the Scriptures are not suf- 
ficient, neither were ever appointed to be the 
adequate and only rule for Christians." 1 On 
the other hand it was held that "Christians 
now are to be led inwardly and immediately 
by the Spirit of God, even in the same man- 
ner, though it befall not many to be led in 
the same measure, as the saints were of old." 2 
While Barclay formulated a separate Prop- 
osition dealing with the Scriptures, (III) the 
treatment of immediate revelation in the soul, 
and remote revelation in the Scriptures really 
belongs together. In this connection, new 
and startling admissions regarding the ac- 
curacy and inerrancy of the Bible were made 
by Barclay. He admitted that errors in the 
course of time had crept into the originally 
pure text, but such as they were did not dim 
or diminish the clear testimony left to all of 
the essentials of the Christian faith. 3 An 
unusually clear statement is made by Barclay 

x Thc Apology, p. 47. 2 Thesame,48. 3 The same, 89. 



Page Eleven 

as to the real character of the Scriptures, and 
their relation to the direct light and leading 
of the soul : He says : 

' 'Nevertheless, because they are only a 
declaration of the fountain, and not the fount- 
ain itself, therefore they are not to be es- 
teemed the principal ground of all truth and 
knowledge, nor yet the adequate primary 
rule of faith and manners. Yet because they 
give a true and faithful testimony of the 
first foundation, they are and may be esteemed 
a secondary rule, subordinate to the Spirit, 
from which they have all their excellency 
and certainty : for as by the inward testimony 
of the Spirit we do alone truly know them, 
so they testify, that the Spirit is that Guide 
by which the saints are led into all Truth ; 
therefore, according to the Scriptures, the 
Spirit is the first and principal leader. " 4 

This doctrine does not sound so startling 
in our time as it did to the seventeenth cent- 
ury Presbyterians, to whom it was the rank- 
est kind of heresy. 

Having established the relationship be- 

4 The Apology, p. 73. 



Page Twelve 

tween recorded and immediate and original 
inspiration, it is in order to briefly, and as 
impartially as possible try and find out what 
Barclay really meant by ' 'immediate Revela- 
tion/ ' The task is not so easy as it might 
seem, principally for the reason that in deal- 
ing with the question our seventeenth cent- 
ury Quaker theologian was not able to cut 
loose from current stock beliefs, and com- 
mon Scripture proof texts, regarding most 
religious matters, some of them but little if 
at all related to his main contention. 

The first question that suggests itself is, 
from whence does the revelation come ? Bar- 
clay talks about the knowledge of God, and 
intimates that there are two kinds of knowl- 
edge relating to the subject, one spiritual 
and the other literal; one is "saving heart 
knowledge, and the other soaring head knowl- 
edge.' ' The first is internal and essential ; 
the second external, bookish and unvital. 
While distinctly and repeatedly asserting 
that revelation is from the Spirit, Barclay 



Page Thirteen 

proceeds to use different terms to define what 
he means. Those are only Christians he 
says, or ever have been, who have the spirit 
of Christ. Knowledge of Christ "which is 
not by the revelation of his own spirit in the 
heart, is no more properly the knowledge of 
Christ, than the prattling of a parrot, which 
has been taught a few words, may be said to 
be the voice of man." 5 

Barclay brings out the individual mani- 
festation of revelation in a clear and com- 
prehensive way, and anticipates Herbert 
Spencer's study by comparison by two cent- 
uries. He is dealing with the "inward, im- 
mediate, objective revelation by the Spirit." 
After affirming that such a spiritual revela- 
tion in some form has been the main-stay of 
all Christians, he cites the Papists, the butt 
of much theological illustration, to prove 
his case. He says when pressed for a state- 
ment as to why they believe as the church 
does, they answer, "Because the church is 

s The Apology, p. 36. 



Page Fourteen 

always led by the infallible Spirit/' If 
asked again why they trust tradition, they 
answer, ''Because the traditions were de- 
livered us by the doctors and fathers of the 
church, which doctors and fathers by the rev- 
elation of the holy ghost commanded the 
church to observe them. Here again all ends 
in the revelation of the Spirit." 

Passing to the pet position of the seven- 
teenth century Protestants, touching the rule 
and foundation of faith, which held that it 
was in the Scriptures, Barclay gives us their 
own expressed reason for this trust, ' 'Because 
we have in them the mind of God, delivered 
unto us by those to whom these things were 
inwardly, immediately and objectively re- 
vealed by the spirit of God ; and not because 
this or that man wrote them, but because 
the spirit of God dictated them." 6 As the 
early Friends saw the situation, it was 
neither logical nor reasonable, nor was it 

6 This quotation and the matters connected with it, 
may be found on pages 70 and 71 of the "Apology." 



Page Fifteen 

spiritually healthy to make the church or the 
Scriptures the sole repositories of inspira- 
tion, while denying it to men, who really 
made churches and scriptures possible. 

In this presentation the bed-rock of the 
whole contention between the Friends and 
the theologians of the seventeenth century 
may be found. By the theologians the em- 
phasis was placed on the vehicle of revela- 
tion, while the Friends placed it on the 
source ; the one insisted on the shadow of the 
manifestation, the other the substance from 
which it came. What is still more, the 
Friendly position vindicated the divine or- 
igin of revelation from the implication of 
partiality, and made God potentially and 
practically no respecter of persons, and with- 
out favoritism as to the ways and means 
by which he deals with his children. 

Because they insisted on present revelation 
Friends were charged with either denying or 
being indifferent to the revelation of the 
past. This was of course a misconception. 



Page Sixteen 

As a matter of fact, the revelation to-day 
becomes the vindicator of the revelation of 
yesterday. It would seem that the rational 
position which made revelation continuous 
and not intermittent, must appeal to the 
hearts of men. This clear distinction of the 
Friendly position may well close the con- 
sideration of this Point from Barclay. 



THE UNIVERSAL AND SAVING LIGHT. 

Barclay repudiates the popular notion of 
the consequences of the fall of man in his 
Fourth Proposition. While he held that 
Adam suffered a great spiritual loss as the re- 
sult of his disobedience, and could not trans- 
mit to his posterity any good thing which he 
did not himself possess ; he seems to have held 
that the first man "did not retain in his nature 
any will or light capable to give him knowl- 
edge of spiritual things. ' ' Hence the conclu- 
sion is that man * 'naturally," whatever may 
be meant by that word, inherits no good thing. 
Still this negative assumption in Barclay's 
mind did not impart personal guilt to any 
who were not willingly guilty. This being 
the case we have this inquiry : From whence 
proceedeth the good in men ? Here is Bar- 
clay's answer to his own question: "What- 
ever real good any man doth, it proceedeth 
not from his nature, as he is man, or the son 
of Adam ; but from the seed of God in him, 

Page Seventeen 



Page Eighteen 

as a new visitation of life, in order to bring 
him out of this natural condition.' ' It would 
seem that the position here stated amounts 
to a claim that men inherit evil propensities 
from both their immediate and remote an- 
cestors, but do not inherit actual guilt. 
This view seems to be quite consistent with 
the theory of certain modern physical scien- 
tests, to the effect that tendencies to specific 
diseases are transmitted from parents to chil- 
dren, but not the diseases themselves. Guilt, 
therefore, as Barclay considered it, is lodged 
against no man, until by positive willing 
acts on his part he becomes actually guilty. 

It is therefore manifest that men do not 
need salvation from the guilt of Adam. The 
function of the ''saving light" is to bring 
men from a condition of proneness to evil in 
the natural man, to a condition of positive, 
purposeful good, by the operation of the seed 
of God in him, amounting to the leading of 
the "saving light." 

We are not interested in considering under 



Page Nineteen 

what bondage to traditional theology Barclay 
rested touching the beginning of the race, as 
told in Genesis, but rather in trying to un- 
derstand the nature and operation of the 
"saving light," as a resident influence for 
present-day application. 

From the foregoing it is quite easy to un- 
derstand Barclay's opposition to the theory 
of predestination. From his view-point the 
Calvinistic position was unjust to God, for 
it made him practically endorse sin. The 
theory was also considered unscriptural, 
something in the nature of a "novelty." 

Possibly his opposition to the theory of 
Predestination, was for the reason that it 
closed the door to universal salvation. It 
would be claiming altogether too much to 
consider that our Quaker theologian was a 
Universalist, especially in the modern sense 
of the term, but he did claim that the oppor- 
tunity for salvation was universal. At any 
rate the door of hope was not slammed in the 
face of the wicked and indifferent by theiU- 



Page Twenty 

mighty. The * 'saving light" came to all 
men, and the "divine motion" in them was 
towards salvation. If it did not perform its 
office work, the fault was with man and not 
with God. 

The "saving light" in the soul is the day 
of man's visitation, and is God's way of 
providing the means for his deliverance. At 
certain points Barclay seems to infer that 
salvation is based on man partaking of the 
fruits of Christ's death. Nevertheless it is 
the "measure of the light of his own son" 
which calls, exhorts and strives with man, 
and by an inward process makes men "par- 
takers of the resurrection, in becoming holy, 
pure and righteous, and recovered out of 
their sins." It is therefore held that the 
salvation of man depends wholly on God, 
while his condemnation is self-invited, as 
is the suffering a responsible act of the indi- 
vidual. 

Like most theologians Barclay was not 
able to free himself from what seems incon- 



Page Twenty One 

sistency. While he talks about the fruits of 
Christ's death, he speaks confidently of the 
light which antedated the birth of Jesus. 
Barclay was not particular as to the name 
given to this saving internal influence. He 
does not object to the Holy Spirit described 
by Seneca; nor the "seed of salvation" of 
Clement ; nor yet the various names given 
to it by his fellow Quakers. Whatever the 
sign, the substance was the same in effect, 
the Divine working in the soul of man. It 
was a work not onty for next- world safety, 
but for this world betterment, amounting in 
its fullness to the conscious spiritual life. 
This internal light was the one manifesta- 
tion necessary to a real knowledge of God. 

Barclay's citations from the * 'heathen" 
philosophers to fortify his case are many. 
His purpose in the quotations, is, in the main, 
to prove that they too could be, or were led 
by the universal light. He says, "They 
knew this wisdom was nigh unto them and 
that the best knowledge of God, and of di- 



Pagk Twknty-Two 



vine mysteries, was by the inspiration of the 
wisdom of God." The matter may be made 
more plain by quoting this paragraph: 



t « 



And much more of this kind might be 
instanced, by which it appears they (the 
heathen) knew Christ ; and by his working 
in them were brought from unrighteousness 
to righteousness, and to love that power by 
which they felt themselves redeemed ; so 
sayeth the apostle, 'They show the work of 
the law written in their hearts,' and did the 
things contained in the law ; and therefore, 
as all doers of the law are, were no doubt 
justified, and saved thus by the power of 
Christ in them. And as this was the judg- 
ment of the apostle, so was it of the primi- 
tive Christians. Hence Justin Martyr stuck 
not to call Socrates a Christian, saying, that 
'all such as lived according to the divine 
word in them, which was in all men, were 
Christians, such as Socrates and Heraclitus, 
and others among the Greeks,' etc. That 
such as live with the word, are Christians 
without fear or anxiety." 1 

Other Christian Fathers are also quoted to 

1 The Apology, page 185. 



Page Twenty-Threk 

sustain the position regarding the universal 
character of the light, and its operation in 
the hearts of men in pre-Christian times. 
Augustine, says Barclay, declared that "the 
Jew dared not affirm that none belonged to 
God but the Israelites." Clements saying 
that the philosophy of the Greeks "was their 
schoolmaster to lead them unto Christ, by 
which of old they were justified, is quoted 
with approval. Ludovicus Vives 2 declared 
"that the Gentiles, not having a law, were 
a law unto themselves ; and the light of so 
living is the gift of God, and proceeds from 
the Son, of whom it is written, that he 'en- 
lighteneth every man that cometh into the 
world.' " George Buchanan, a cotemporary 
of Barclay, said in a famous work written in 
Latin. ' 'Truly, I understand no other thing 
at present than that light which is divinely 
infused into every soul." 

2 Vives was a Spanish humanist, who lived during 
the flfteanth century. He spent some time in Eng- 
land, and was imprisoned there for opposing the di- 
vorce of Henry vm. 



Page Twenty-Four 

The question may be asked, considering 
the universal and continuous character of the 
saving light, how is it that Barclay and the 
rest made any matter hinge upon the death 
of Jesus ? The question is not for us to an- 
swer. Neither are the details of belief vastly 
important. If we accept the clear statement 
that all men possess the light, and always 
have, we have caught the important pres- 
ent-day message, and may well hold as im- 
material the aberrations of doctrine which 
have often characterized the experiences of 
men in their search for truth. 

To prove his contention of the universality 
of the saving light and power, Barclay takes 
the experience of Peter with Cornelius as a 
sample. We quote : 

1 'Peter was before liable to that mistake 
that the rest of the Jews were in ; judging 
that all were unclean, except themselves, 
and that no man could be saved, except they 
were proselyted to their religion and circum- 
cised. But God showed Peter otherwise in 
a vision, and taught him to call nothing 



Page Twenty-Five 

common or unclean ; and therefore, seeing 
that God regarded the prayers of Cornelius, 
who was a stranger to the law and to Jesus 
Christ as to the outward, yet Peter saw that 
God had accepted him ; and he is said to fear 
God before he had this outward knowledge ; 
therefore Peter concludes that every one in 
every station, without respect of persons, 
that feareth God and workethrighteousness, 
is accepted of him. So he makes the fear of 
God and the workings of righteousness, and 
not an outward historical knowledge, the 
qualification ; then they that have this, 
wherever they be, they are saved." 3 

This belittlement of rite and dogma, is 
followed by an examination as to church re- 
lationship. The visible church is no refuge, 
according to Barclay, for those who do not 
follow the light. It is argued that if outward 
knowledge and literal conformity are the way 
to salvation, then absence of such knowledge 
must be a valid excuse, so that a premium is 
offered on ignorance or an inability to receive 
such knowledge, as all such persons may be 
3 The Apology, page 180. 



Page Twenty-Six 

saved in spite of themselves In Barclay's 
time the deaf and the deaf and blind had no 
way of receiving historical or doctrinal knowl- 
edge, and were therefore virtually exempt 
from the plan of salvation, unless the mon- 
strous assumption is made that men were re- 
sponsible for what they could not possibty 
know. He was equally insistent that under 
the commonly accepted plan, the heathen, 
having been deprived of the outw r ard knowl- 
edge, upon which salvation was supposed to 
be based, were entitled to all the benefits of 
the plan, as a matter of justice. But no 
such easy exit from difficulty by way of ignor- 
ance was open to any under the theory advo- 
cated by our author. Assuming the exist- 
ence of the universal and saving light, the 
whole matter of salvation was removed from 
the domain of the mechanical to the region 
of the spiritual. Having the universal light 
all men were placed, according to Barclay, 
on a basis of spiritual equality, and had a 
common responsibility for their own safety, 



Page Twenty-Seven 

both here and hereafter. Not by perform- 
ance of rite, or acceptance of dogma are men 
saved, but by the operation of the light, and 
obedience to it. 

The claim of the equality of saving oppor- 
tunity may call up suggestive questions, 
which involve the fundamental matter of 
spiritual consciousness. Do all men possess 
the consciousness of the light which is in 
them ? In some way, and at some time, 
probabty yes ! Still the variety of gifts, and 
the apparent accident of fortune and mis- 
fortune, together with difference of appre- 
hension, are indisputable in the field of 
human life and experience. But at this 
point the great spiritual value of the recog- 
nition of brotherhood, and the need of mu-, 
tual helpfulness occupy large places in the 
way of life. In these lie the real meaning of 
a vital ministry, its value being to call men 
to spiritual consciousness of the light, which 
directs them to the divine teacher within 
themselves. These are matters which will 
be dealt with more fully in the nezt chapter. 



THE MINISTRY. 

Barclay's Tenth Proposition deals with 
the Ministry, but is also made the occasion 
for defining and describing the Church, with 
its distinct characteristics, and the qualifica- 
tions for membership therein. He consider- 
ed that the Church should be treated under 
two heads. First, the Church is that entire 
body of spiritually led and endowed men 
and women, both inside and outside the dis- 
tinct religious organizations. Second, the 
Church comprises those societies or organi- 
zations of individuals gathered about par- 
ticular principles or distinct forms of church 
polity. 

Under the first head Barclay makes a 
broad gauge characterization, which has 
not yet been fully reached by the great mass 
of the Christian world. It is held that this 
Church universal is made up of all those 
whom God has "called out of the world, 
and worldly spirit, to walk in His Life and 

Page Twenty-Eight 



Page Twenty-Nine 

Light." This comprehensive Church is the 
real Catholic Church. This Church may have 
members both "among Heathen, Turks, 
Jews, and all of the several sorts of Chris- 
tians, men and women of integrity and sim- 
plicity of heart, who, though blinded in 
some things in their understanding, and per- 
haps burdened with the superstition and 
formality of the several sects in which they 
are engrossed, yet being upright in their 
hearts before the Lord, chiefly aiming and 
laboring to be delivered from iniquity, and 
loving to follow righteousness, are by the 
secret touches of this holy light in their souls, 
enlivened and quickened, thereby secretly 
united to God, and there-through become 
true members of this Catholic Church." 1 But 
the widely represented membership in this 
Church universal has as its complement the 
continuous character of the spirit itself. It 
has, in fact, existed in all generations, and 

!The Apology, p. 259. 



Page Thirty 

was God's witness in the earth in pre-Chris- 
tian as well as post-Christian times. 

The particular Church Barclay consider- 
ed an ingathering of certain persons by 
God's spirit. This Church could have a 
definite organization, and was considered 
a fellowship of men and women informed in 
the same truths, who assemble together to 
wait upon God, to worship him and bear 
testimony to the truth against error. If need 
be these persons were to suffer for the cause, 
and by virtue of the joint fellowship to be- 
come welded into one spiritual household. 
While an outward confession of faith may 
be desirable or necessary in a member of 
a particularly gathered Church, such a re- 
quirement is not essential for one to be- 
come a member of the truly Catholic, or 
Church universal. In short, members of the 
larger Church need not be members of any 
special communion, and those who have 
definite church connection may be counted 



Page Thirty One 

as part of the broader fellowship, although 
such connection gave them no right to be so 
classified, merely by itself. Barclay had 
little use for a purely ceremonial church 
membership, and was equally opposed to 
a type of assumed ceremonial righteousness. 

Not at all mindful of the part to be played 
by a system of birthright membership in 
his own religious society, he vigorously con- 
demned a religious condition or connection 
largely based on inheritance, or the accident 
of birth. In his estimation the fundamental 
Christian virtues, such as "meekness, gen- 
tleness, love, long-suffering, goodness and 
temperance," began to wane when persecu- 
tion for conscience sake declined. This was 
augmented, in the opinion of Barclay, when 
the "teachers and pastors of the Church be- 
came the companions of princes." The en- 
joyment of state privileges and perquisites 
puffed up and intoxicated with vanity the 
men whose real concern should have been 



Page Thirty-Two 

the preaching of the word and the presen- 
tation of the gospel message. When men 
became Christians by birth, he says, "and 
not by conversion and renovation of spirit, 
then there was none so vile, none so wick- 
ed, none so profane, who became not a mem- 
ber of the Church/' 2 However correct or 
incorrect Barclay's contention may be as a 
conclusion, it is quite likely that this feel- 
ing, as stated by him, had much to do with 
the later withdrawal of Friends from partici- 
pation in civil government, and led to the 
disciplinary exhortation against the holding 
of public office. 3 It should be remembered 
that Barclay's position does not claim that 
one born into the Church special, could not 
have the spiritual insight and leading which 
must characterize those counted as compos- 

2The Apology, p. 261. 

8 The New York Discipline, revision of 1878, 
contained this statement: "Friends are tenderly 
and earnestly advised not to accept offices of 
profit and honor in the government. " 



Page Thirty-Three 

ing the church universal. It was his feeling 
that the Protestant sects had not repudiated 
all of what he considered the hurtful here- 
sies which had been promulgated by the his- 
toric Church, which insisted upon calling it- 
self the "Apostolic Mother Church," but 
which was contemptuously called by Pro- 
testants the Romish hierarchy. 

Having treated the spirit, purpose and 
composition of the Church, Barclay proceeds 
to deal directly with the ministry. While 
he seems to recognize a distinct type or 
class, by belonging to which one is differ- 
entiated from the mere member, he states 
clearly the fundamental Friendly position 
regarding the function and manifestation 
of vocal ministry in our religious body. 

"What maketh, or how cometh a man to 
be a minister, pastor or teacher in the 
Church of Christ?" he queries. The answer 
is brief, and almost axiomatic : "By the uni- 
versal power and virtue of the spirit of 



Page Thirty-Four 

God." 4 There is a rational presentation of 
what the minister can do, which is worth 
considering. "Having received the true 
knowledge of things spiritual by the spirit 
of God, without which they cannot be 
known, and being by the same in measure 
purified and sanctified, he comes thereby to 
be called and moved to minister to others; 
being able to speak from a living experi- 
ence of what he himself is a witness." 4 In 
short, he being a witness to truth himself, 
he can make that truth meet the witness in 
the hearts of other men, and persuade them 
to heed the witness. Under these conditions 
"his words and ministry proceeding from 
the inward power and virtue, reach to the 
heart of his hearers, and make them approve 
of him, and be subject unto him." 5 It is 
probably the last clause in this statement, 
which being misunderstood and misinter- 

*The Apology, o. 264. 
5The Apology, p. 264. 



Page Thirty-Five 

preted, caused the abuses which at some 
points have characterized our ministry. As 
a matter of fact, the object of ministry un- 
der our system is not to secure human ap- 
proval, nor to make the hearers subject to 
the minister. It is quite likely that Barclay 
never intended his words to be taken liter- 
ally. The preacher is not the real teacher. 
In fact it is the divine inward teacher to 
whom men should look for leading. Barclay 
is eminently safe and sound in his claim that 
the same spiritual influences which make 
men Christians can alone make them min- 
isters. 

At the center of Barclay's conception was 
a disposition to ignore titles and the dis- 
tinctions which they were supposed to bring. 
It was what a servant of Christ did which 
was worth considering, and not the titles 
which he assumed or which men gave him. 
Nevertheless, he held that there was a dis- 
tinct difference in what might be called spir- 



Page Thirty-Six 

itual ability. Some, he thought, were more 
particularly called to the work of the min- 
istry than others. Such persons would be 
more effective ministers than those less 
completely endowed. Consequently, the re- 
sponsibility resting on these uncommonly 
endowed persons is greater than that of the 
"common believer. " Barclay, however, was 
careful not to encourage either ministerial 
or spiritual egotism. In his estimation the 
special gift called for extraordinary service, 
and in no sense warranted an exaggerated 
claim to special favor and consideration. 

Barclay's position concerning the minis- 
try of women is of interest. Male and fe- 
male being one in Christ Jesus, it is very 
certain that the Spirit is given as freely and 
graciously to the one as to the other. 
Therefore, when a woman is moved by the 
Spirit of God, she must obey the call, and 
give her message to the assembled wor- 
shippers. Paul's reproof of "inconsiderate 



Page Thirty-Seven 

and talkative women/' who "trouble the 
Church of Christ with their unprofitable 
questions/' or the apostolic injunction that 
"women ought to learn silence, not usurp- 
ing authority over the men/' was consid- 
ered no embargo on the exercise of their 
spiritual gifts, by qualified women. That 
many souls were converted by the preach- 
ing of the commonly proscribed sex; and 
that not a few children were comforted by 
the preaching of women, seemed to Bar- 
clay to put the practical seal of divine ap- 
proval on their ministry. 

There is no more interesting feature in 
the Tenth Proposition than the treatment 
of that phase of the subject involved in the 
material and monetary assistance to the min- 
ister. Ministry being based on the gift and 
grace of God, manifestly it should be freely 
exercised ; costing nothing, the service which 
flowed from the gift should be freely dis- 
pensed. Barclay insists, and bases a large 



Pagk Thirty-Eight 

part of his contention on the claim that in the 
Apostolic Church there were no employed or 
salaried preachers. That is, no man minis- 
tered in the early Church because he had 
made a bargain to preach for a stipulated 
salary. 

Considerable attention is given to the rea- 
sons assigned in the seventeenth century 
and before for the existence of a professional 
ministry. Nicolaus Arnoldus is quoted as 
having denied that the qualification to 
preach had been freely received, and he 
therefore claimed that there was no obliga- 
tion to freely exercise the same. The seven- 
teenth century disputants claimed that the 
educational and other preparation for the 
ministry had cost much time, and involved 
a considerable cash expenditure. This was 
simply a roundabout way of asserting the 
professional character of the ministry. In 
other words, preaching was considered a 
calling: the labor a man did as a means of 



Page Thirty-Ninb 

earning a livelihood. Barclay vigorously op- 
posed this contention. He said that, admit- 
ting the ingenuous statement of Arnoldus, 
it proved too much, being in effect an admis- 
sion that the professional minister was not 
generally, if ever, divinely called. Hence 
his preaching did not proceed from the gift 
and grace of God. He therefore objected to 
Galling men who preached for salaries real 
ministers of Christ. 

There may be an element of the censori- 
ous and a passing of the snap judgment 
in Barclay's position. He claimed that the 
type of ministry contended for by the Es- 
tablished Church and by the Protestant 
sects was open to grave objection. The sys- 
tem provided for ministers that "have no 
immediate call from Christ, to whom the 
leading and motion of the spirit" are not 
reckoned necessary. On the other hand 
Barclay intimates that under the popular 
interpretation such ministers were "called, 



Page Forty 

sent forth and ordained by wicked and un- 
godly men ; and such were of old the false 
prophets and teachers. " Whatever may 
have been the case in the seventeenth cen- 
tury, it certainly would not be fair to claim 
in our time that any branch of the Protes- 
tant Church would base the qualification to 
preach entirely on the outward ordination, 
or even the theological preparation for the 
ministry. 

Barclay's positive claim for the ministry, 
however, is the one that has the most vital 
meaning for us. That involves the assist- 
ance and influence of the Spirit, and an 
equal insistence that ministers do not labor 
in their own natural strength and ability. 
These, having received the divine qualifi- 
cation, must freely give their ministry with- 
out being hampered by a stipulated mone- 
tary consideration. 

It should not be inferred from anything 
that has been said that Barclay was unmind- 



Page Forty-One 

ful of the material needs of ministers. Neith- 
er was he opposed to their being educated. 
In fact, he was an educated minister himself. 
If we rightly understand him, he believed 
that men should be educated, but not spe- 
cially for the ministry. The education should 
come in the round of development and ex- 
perience. Education for the profession of 
the ministry had no place in Barclay's sys- 
tem, and has had none in the Society of 
Friends at any time. If the divine call 
comes to an educated man or woman, well 
and good, but if it comes to the uneducated 
it, and not the intellectual preparation, make 
the minister. 

It would hardly be a proper representa- 
tion of Barclay to claim that he utterly ig- 
nored the material needs of the ministry, 
or a material provision to meet them. What 
he objected to was the stipulated salary, the 
bargaining in advance as to what the min- 
ister should receive, and the consequent re- 



Page Forty-Two 

fusal to serve unless the promise to pay was 
made, and properly redeemed. 

The author of the " Apology" was not un- 
mindful of the embarrassment likely to arise 
when the called preacher gave himself to 
the service, and thereby imperiled his own 
living and that of those dependent upon 
him. Upon this point he thus expressed 
himself: 

"Also they who have received this holy 
and unspotted gift, as they have freely re- 
ceived it, so are they freely to give it, with- 
out hire or bargaining, far less to use it as 
a trade to get money by* yet if God hath 
called any one from their employment or 
trades, by which they acquire their liveli- 
hood, it may be lawful for such, according 
to their liberty which they feel given them 
in the Lord, to receive such temporals (to 
wit, what may be needful for them for meat 
and clothing) as are given them freely and 
cordially by those to whom they have com- 
municated spirituals." 6 

6The Apology, p. 256. 



Page Forty-Three 

This might make the living of the speci- 
fied type of preacher uncertain, if not pre- 
carious, assuming that he gives all of his 
time to this sort of service. But neither 
in the mind of Barclay, nor in the condition 
in his time or since, has it been generally 
necessary that such continuous service in 
the ministry should be given in our So- 
ciety. The whole theory of the free minis- 
try is that like the great Apostle, the neces- 
sities of the minister should be supplied by 
his own hands. Barclay simply provides for 
the unusual kind that might arise in case 
of a missionary propaganda, such as was evi- 
dently carried on quite extensively by the 
Friends of the seventeenth century. 



WORSHIP. 

True and acceptable worship of God pro- 
ceeds from the "inward and immediate 
moving and drawing of his own Spirit," 
says' Barclay. This worship is limitless; 
that is, it is not confined to persons, times 
or places. Whatever is tolerable in out- 
ward worship, such as "prayers, praises or 
preachings/' must be by the "secret inspi- 
ration of the Spirit of God" in the heart. 
All of the forms or manifestations of wor- 
ship, which man "sets about in his own 
will, and at his own appointment; which he 
can both begin and end at his pleasure, do 
or leave undone as himself seeth meet," was 
considered "abominable idolatry," by the 
author of the "Apology." In this connec- 
tion it was asserted that extemporaneous 
prayer and preaching were no better than 
that to be found in the rituals, if they pro- 
ceeded from man's will. 

Notwithstanding the broad definition of 

Page Forty-Four 



Page Forty Five 

worship given above, Barclay should not 
be taken too literally, nor should he be 
counted a complete individualist. He 
claimed that worship is an act and an obli- 
gation, due to God, men owing him "rever- 
ence, honor and adoration/ 5 But the re- 
sult, if not the forerunner of worship should 
be "holy conformity to the pure law and 
light of God, leading to a forsaking of evil, 
and the practice of the perpetual moral pre- 
cepts of righteousness and equity." Still, 
Barclay believed thoroughly in the collec- 
tive side of worship. "To meet together 
we think necessary for the people of God," 
he says. This is desirable in order to build 
a joint and visible fellowship, and a unity 
of spirit among believers. 

One of Barclay's objections to the popu- 
lar forms of worship was because it was 
more spectacular than spontaneous. Meet- 
ing together to listen to a regulation 
amount of preaching, prayer and singing, 
from his standpoint was not worship. In 



Page Forty-Six 

a properly conditioned meeting, those gath- 
ered must wait for the Spirit to prepare 
their hearts to worship and the preacher to 
fully minister to their needs. Besides those 
who worship must listen to and obey the 
Spirit in them, rather than feast on the 
verbal utterances of the preacher. 

While insisting upon the public assem- 
blies of the people, our author did not at- 
tach any special sanctity to the first day 
of the week, nor to the place where the 
meeting gathered. He was quite clear that 
personal and public worship was desirable, 
if not incumbent upon Christians on week- 
days. The general observance of First- 
day as a fit time for public meetings, in no 
way committed Friends to ultra Sabbatarian 
ideas or practices. They did not consider 
the Jewish Sabbath a living and valid in- 
stitution, nor the so-called Christian Sab- 
bath a continued type of the older institu- 
tion. A common day for rest and worship 
was considered desirable from every stand- 



Page Forty Seven 

point. Such a day was observed by primi- 
tive Christians, and so they chose the first 
day, without, as Barclay says, "supersti- 
tiously straining the Scriptures for anoth- 
er reason." After all this, and much more 
in condemnation of what he considered the 
"abominable idolatry" involved in the pub- 
lic worship of both Catholics and Protes- 
tants, Barclay was sure that "upright-heart- 
ed men, though zealous in these abomina- 
tions, have been heard of God, and accepted 
by Him." 1 

The part which silence should play in a 
really spiritual worship, is quite elaborately 
set forth. To start with, it is affirmed that 
the great work of those assembled is to 
"wait upon God; and returning out of their 
Own thoughts and imaginations, to feel the 
Lord's presence." 2 Thus assembled "in- 
wardly in their spirits, as well as outward- 

!The Apology, p. 328. 
2 The same, p. 329. 



Page Forty-Eight 

ly in their persons/' spiritual refreshing is 
the result. Under these conditions "no man 
limits the Spirit of God, nor bringeth forth 
his own conned and gathered stuff; but ev- 
ery one puts that forth which the Lord puts 
into their hearts/' 3 Though no word is 
spoken, true spiritual worship has been per- 
formed. As has already been suggested, 
the silence counts for preparation for the de- 
liverance and acceptance of a vocal minis- 
try. Thus during this period of waiting, 
the truth may be inwardly tested before be- 
ing outwardly expressed, is an experience 
warranted from Barclay's presentation. 
On this point, he says : 

"Now as many thus gathered together 
grow up in the strength, power and virtue 
of truth, and as truth comes thus to have 
victory and dominion in their souls, then 
they receive an utterance, and speak stead- 
ily to the edification of their brethren, and 
the pure life hath a free passage through 

3 The same, p 



Page Forty-Nine 

them, and what is thus spoken edifieth the 
body indeed." 4 

After asserting the uplift of a properly 
conditioned silent meeting, and testifying 
to the fact that often the rude and the 
wicked, who come to disturb are subdued 
by the silence, Barclay says : 

"Yet I do not so much commend and 
speak of silence as if we had bound our- 
selves by any law to exclude praying or 
preaching, or tied ourselves thereunto; not 
at all ; for as our worship consisteth not in 
words, so neither in silence, as silence; but 
in a holy dependence of the mind upon God ; 
from which dependence silence necessarily 
follows in the first place, and words can be 
brought forth, which are from God's Spir- 
it." 5 

There is no evidence that Barclay consid- 
ered worship as a propitiatory act; that is, 
as a performance in offset for sin. Wor- 

4 The Apology, p. 332. 
5 The same, p. 336. 



Page Fifty 

ship, as he understood it, is for spiritual up- 
lift, and is not a performance undertaken 
to placate the Infinite. 

The "Christian religion consisteth not in 
a mere belief of true doctrines, or a mere 
performance of acts good in themselves, or 
else the bare letter of Scripture, though 
spoken by a drunkard, or devil, might be 
said to be spirit and life, which I judge none 
will be so absurd as to affirm; and also it 
would follow, that where the form of God- 
liness is, there the power is also, which is 
contrary to the express words of the Apos- 
tle." 6 

It is affirmed by the author of the "Apol- 
ogy" that Jesus Christ, the author of the 
Christian religion, prescribed "no set form 
of worship to his children under the more 
pure administration of the new covenant, 
save that he only tells them that the war- 
ship now to be performed is spiritual." 

"And it is especially to be observed, that 
6The Apology, p. 339. 



Page Fifty-One 

in the whole New Testament there is no or- 
der nor command given in this thing, but 
to follow the revelation of the Spirit, save 
only the general one of meeting together; 
a thing dearly owned and diligently prao 
ticed by us, as shall hereafter more appear. 
True, it is, mention is made of the duties 
of praying, preaching and singing; but 
what order or method should be kept in 
so doing, or what presently they should be 
set about as soon as the saints are gathered, 
there is not one word to be found; yes, 
these duties, as shall afterwards be made 
appear/ are always annexed to the assist- 
ance, leadings and motions of God's Spir- 
it." 7 

It is consequently inferred that a spirit- 
ual worship, in which the Spirit moves, if 
it does not direct, cannot provide a set pro- 
gram, or any form of pre-arranged service. 
"Preaching by the hour glass," is consider- 
ed out of order by Barclay. 

"Curious speculations ot religion," ac- 

?The Apology, p. 340. 



Page Fifty-Two 

companied by conformity to custom, our 
author thought had no place in worship. He 
was equally sure that troubling thoughts, 
such as the fear of "death, hell and the 
judgment," or imaginary conceptions of 
the happiness and joy of heaven"; or a mul- 
tiplicity of "prayers and other religious per- 
formances," do not deliver from iniquity, 
and are not necessary adjuncts of worship. 
Unless these conceptions are accompanied 
by the "secret and inward power of God's 
Spirit and grace, would signify no more 
than the fig - leaves wherewith Adam 
thought to cover his nakedness." 8 

Considerable attention is given by Bar- 
clay to a review of the exercises that might 
happen in a meeting held for spiritual worship. 
He placed preaching at the top of the 
allowed gospel order, but he differentiates 
between real preaching and mere speaking, 

however logical and eloquent. The dem- 
8 The same, p. 343. 



Page Fifty-Three 

onstration of spirit and power he consider- 
ed an evidence of inspired preaching. He 
opposed preaching from texts taken in ad- 
vance, and used as the basis for extended 
pre-arranged discourse. While Christ and 
the Apostles may have quoted or read from 
the Old Testament, they did so without 
premeditation. But whether they did or 
did not make resort to Scripture texts, it is 
affirmed, and probably with reason, that 
the occasional practice was not presented as 
a settled custom or form. Just how Bar- 
clay knew that when the Apostles or the 
Great Teacher quoted from the Hebrew 
writings, they did so without any premedi- 
tation, raises a question which no one can 
answer. But while considering these not 
altogether profitable details, it is well to 
keep clearly in mind that Barclay's main 
contention was that it is the Spirit of God 
that should be the "chief instructor and 
teacher of God's people." This truth is 
more important than an attempt to arbi- 



Page Fifty-Four 

trarily and dogmatically determine how the 
teaching is to be received or applied. 

In considering the value of prayer, Bar- 
clay assumes that whether read from a rit- 
ual or extemporaneously uttered, as em- 
ployed by both Catholics and Protestants, 
neither considered that the "motions and 
influence of the Spirit of God are necessary 
to be previous thereto." There is a free 
acknowledgment that prayer is necessary, 
and is commanded by the fathers of the 
Church. It is of two kinds, inward and out- 
ward. The former is the "secret turning 
of the mind towards God." Outward pray- 
er must be based on the inward kind. It 
seeks outward expression in various mani- 
festations. Much outward prayer may be 
purely man-made. All acceptable prayer 
must be the result of inward retirement, 
and like preaching must be spontaneous 
and not pre-arranged. Prayer, which was 
part of a program, and to which men pass- 
ed by announcement, was not the kind 



Page Fifty-Five 

which met the Quaker witness to truth. 
Taking part in this form of prayer lacked 
sincerity, and for this reason the early 
Friends when attending church service, re- 
frained from bowing the head, or in any 
way seeming to acknowledge the validity of 
the outward devotion. Whether a Friend 
by getting in the right spiritual attitude, 
could make a period of formal prayer sin- 
cere and helpful, raised a question which 
called for a more elastic frame of mind than 
the staid Quakers of the seventeenth cen- 
tury possessed. 

That a primitive Friend should make any 
account of singing as an adjunct of wor- 
ship, may seem strange to the modern man 
who has been taught to believe that the 
practice and tradition of the Society of 
Friends have always been against music. 
Nevertheless, Barclay places what he calls 
the "singing of psalms" on exactly the same 
basis as preaching and prayer. Such sing- 
ing he confesses is "a part of God's wor- 



Page Fifty-Six 

ship, when it proceeds from a sense of 
God's love in the heart." 9 The whole mat- 
ter is summed up in the following conclu- 
sion: 

"So that to conclude, the worship, 
preaching, praying and singing, which we 
plead for, is such as proceedeth from the 
Spirit of God, and is always accompanied 
with its influence, being begun by its mo- 
tion and carried on by the power and 
strength thereof; and so is a worship pure- 
ly spiritual." 10 

It may be well to inquire whether the So- 
ciety has not overworked its claim regard- 
ing "immediateness" and "spontaniety." Is 
any violence done to a rational theory of 
inspiration, or the moving of the Spirit, 
should the moving come one day, or one 
week, and not seek expression for anoth- 
er day or another week? It apparently nar- 
rows the scope of inspiration to limit it to 

9 The Apology, p. 378. 
K>The same, p. 380. 



Page Fifty-Seven 

any time or any place. May it not be sup- 
pressing the spirit as much to hold back 
stored-up and tested inspiration, as it is to 
quench the immediate internal movings of 
the Spirit?" 11 

U A further view of the writer regarding in- 
spiration, and the matter of infallibility, may be 
found in a booklet entitled 'A Study in Doctrine 
and Discipline/ second edition, pages 13, and 50, 
51 and 52. 



JUSTIFICATION. 

The doctrine of Justification by Faith, 
constructed out of the theology of Paul, 
was a particularly live issue in the time of 
Barclay, because of its latest statement in 
the Westminster Confession of Faith, which 
was just fresh from the theological anvil 
of the great Presbyterian Assembly. To be 
sure, Luther's reconstructoin of the dogma 
was part of the reformer's contribution to 
Christian doctrine. The Catholic concep- 
tion of the doctrine disturbed the Protes- 
tant reformers from the beginning; but it 
was undoubtedly the current position re- 
garding the matter which chiefly concern- 
ed Barclay. He quotes the Confession's 
literal statement, and proceeds to demolish 
it, as a position no less pernicious than the 
Catholic dogma touching tKe same matter. 
There is both a distinction and a difference 
between the Catholic and Protestant theory 
of Justification. As quoted by Barclay, the 
Westminster Assembly declared: 

"That they obtain remission of sins, and 
Page Fifty-Eight 



Page Fifty-Nine 

stand justified in the sight of God by virtue 
of the merits and sufferings of Christ, not 
by infusing righteousness into them, but by 
pardoning their sins, and by accounting and 
accepting their persons as righteous, they 
resting on Him and His righteousness by 
faith ; which faith, the act of believing, is 
not imputed unto them for righteousness. " 

Freely interpreted, this means that by 
faith men are justified as righteous, though 
in fact sinful, the righteousness of Christ 
being imputed to the sinner. In effect it 
amounts to the acquittal of the guilty party 
by the clemency of the judge, and "in con- 
sideration of the merits of another who has 
paid the penalty which was justly the of- 
fender's due." 

The Catholic theologians carried the the- 
ory a point further, passing from the foren- 
sic to the practical sense of the act of jus- 
tification. Under this view there was ati 
"infusion of personal righteousness" into 
the sinner by imputation. In this sense 
justification and sanctification mean nearly 
the same thing. 



Page Sixty 

The opposition to the Catholic theory of 
Justification was two-fold. To assume that 
righteousness could be imposed arbitrarily 
from the outside outraged Barclay's con- 
ception of the internal and spiritual charac- 
ter of the process of salvation. The place 
of sacraments and outward observances in 
the Catholic plan was vigorously con- 
demned. To in this way secure a remission 
of sins was too mechanical to commend it- 
self to the author of the "Apology." 

The Lutheran theory was considered only 
a little less objectionable than that held by 
the Catholics. It did not provide for inward 
renewal, and held that men were justified 
by faith regardless of their works. Mere 
belief that Christ died for them, to Bar- 
clay's mind, did not provide an adequate 
means of salvation. In fact, he demanded 
that men should forsake their sins, and not 
simply be saved in them. 

In reviewing both the Catholic and the 
Lutheran theory of Justification the objec- 



Page Sixty-One 

tion was raised that neither system provid- 
ed for "spiritual birth, or formation of 
Christ" in man. This birth our author con- 
sidered vital, and without it "a bare appli- 
cation of the death and sufferings of Christ 
outwardly" was unavailing. 

Barclay considered the matter of redemp- 
tion under two heads, and Christ' from his 
standpoint, performed two functions in the 
reconciliation and salvation of the race. 
First, by His life and sacrifice He provided 
men with a capacity of being reconciled. 
That is, through Christ's service we have 
forgiveness. The first function is a process 
of "redemption performed and accomplished 
by Christ for us in His crucified body with- 
but us." Apparently in his view of the case, 
this outward redemption closed a past ac- 
count; it brought us "out of our lost and 
fallen condition and first nature." He evi- 
dently did not think that this outward re- 
demption made a final provision for the race. 
That must be the result of the "redemption 



Page Sixty-Two 

wrought by Christ in us." The nice dis- 
tinction between the two kinds of redemp- 
tion contains the substance of Barclay'.; 
theory, and represents the point of variance 
between the popular idea of Justification 
and that held by the seventeenth century 
Friends. 

The author of the " Apology" objected to 
the use of the word Justification in its 
strained theological sense. To him the 
word scripturally and rationally meant 
"making one just," and not reputing that 
he is just when he is not. For this reason 
serious objection was made to the way 
many Protestants interpreted Scripture. 
These theologians, turning to Paul's state- 
ment : "For he hath made to be sin for us, 
who knew no sin, that we might be made 
the righteousness of God in him," gave it 
this interpretation : ''That as our sin is Im- 
puted to Christ, who had no sin, so Christ's 
righteousness is imputed to us without our 
being righteous." Barclay objected to the 



Page Sixty-Three 

assertion that Christ was reputed a sinner 
by God, and he was equally opposed to any 
arbitrary, mechanical transference of right- 
eousness from Christ to men. Men cannot 
be made just in that way, and there was no 
room in the system iaid down in the "Apol- 
ogy" f° r assuming that a man would be 
counted just by imputation, while in his life 
and conduct he remained unjust. Here is 
our author's summing up of his own case-. 

"And to conclude this proposition, let 
none be so bold as to mock God, supposing 
themselves justified and accepted in the 
sight of God, by virtue of Christ's death and 
sufferings, while they remain unsanctified 
and unjustified in their own hearts, and pol- 
luted in their sins, lest their hope prove 
that of the hypocrite that perished. " 8 

The theological theory of Justification in- 
volved an indifference to good works in the 
plan of salvation. It was responsible for 
the oft-repeated assertion of the profession- 
al revivalists, heard almost universally a 

8 The Apology p. 228. 



Page Sixty-Four 

generation ago, about the certain condemna- 
tion of the merely moral man. Barclay was 
also critical of self-developed morality; of a 
righteousness which was creaturely, and 
which did not proceed from the divine mov- 
ing in the heart. It probably did not occur 
to him that a reasonably righteous life was 
fairly good evidence that the divine spirit, 
the source of all good, had been busy in the 
human heart. Still he was insistent that the 
true faith in Christ, which led to the guid- 
ance of his spirit, bore fruit in the right life, 
and without this visible evidence there was 
reason to be suspicious of the faith, and to 
doubt the act of justification. 

Just how much of a bewildering claim to 
perfection this position involved is a matter 
of speculation and discussion. But in our 
time perfection itself is a progressive word, 
and the building of life a continuous pro- 
cess, so that much of the confusing theo- 
logical contention of the past has little place 
in the thought of our time, and should not 



i 



Page Sixty-Five 

be allowed to distract the spirit. To grow 
towards perfection sums up the mark of the 
high calling, while claiming to be perfect is 
simply an exhibtion of a more or less mis- 
chievous spiritual egotism. 



CONCLUSION. 

Without being counted among the "Five 
Points" herein treated, it seems right and 
in order to give some attention to Barclay's 
position regarding peace and his opposition 
to war. Probably the Quaker attitude re- 
garding this matter is due as much, if not 
more, to Barclay than to the founder of the 
Society of Friends. It should also be re- 
membered that the "Apology" was written 
before William Penn formulated his peace 
program by suggesting the creation of a 
European Diet or world court of arbitration. 

As Barclay was not either a statesman 
or an economist, his contention regarding 
peace was purely religious. He claimed 
that war is not compatible with the teach- 
ing of Christ, on the contrary being a fla- 
grant violation of the plain requirements of 
the Gospel. It is also held that the law of 
Christ is more perfect than the law of 
Moses, and really abrogated the code of the 

Page Sixty Six 



Page Sixty-Seven 

Jewish law-giver. It is claimed with posi- 
tiveness that the ancient fathers, and all of 
the leading men of the first three centuries 
of our era, took a position antagonistic to 
war, a long list of authors being given to 
orove the assertion. 

With almost a grain of sarcasm Barclay 
shows how impossible it is to reconcile the 
precepts of Jesus with the theory and prac- 
tice of the war advocates. What, indeed, is 
there in common between the injunction, 
"Resist not evil," and the command of the 
worldly warriors to "resist violence with 
force ?" "Give also thy other cheek/' is 
hardly consistent with the common practice 
to "Strike again/' While Christ command- 
ed, "Love thine enemies," the so-called 
Christian warriors say, "Spoil them, make 
prey of them, pursue them with fire and 
sword." 1 In very blunt fashion Barclay 

iThese quotations are all arranged from Bar- 
clay, and may be found on page 517 of the 
"Apology/' 



Page Sixty-Eight 

says that those who can reconcile these and 
other inconsistencies stated, "May be sup- 
posed to have found a way to reconcile God 
with the devil, Christ with anti-Christ, light 
with darkness and good with evil." 

We are told that loving one's enemies as 
enjoined by Christ is contradicted by the 
theory and practice of war, which in- 
spires men to hate and destroy their ene- 
mies. Whereas the weapons of the Chris- 
tian warfare are not carnal, the weapons of 
war are "as carnal as cannon, muskets and 
spears." At more points than it seems 
necessary to cite, it is shown how utterly 
at variance is the spirit and purpose of war 
with the precepts of the Gospel. To bear 
one's cross, Barclay says is a Christian vir- 
tue, the exact opposite of the disposition to 
destroy and kill, putting the cross on one's 
enemy according to the game of war. The 
fundamental virtues of truth and simplicity 
are killed by the fraudulent stratagems of 
war; while "fleeing the glory of this world," 



Page Sixty-Nine 

and not to acquire it in the pride and cir- 
cumstance of war is a plain duty. The con- 
clusion is that war is altogether contrary to 
the law and spirit of Christ. 

In the seventeenth, as in the twentieth 
century, the apologist for war took refuge 
in the Old Testament. "Abraham did war 
before the giving of the law, and the Israel- 
ites after the giving of the law," therefore 
war was to be lawful and permissible for- 
ever. Barclay was troubled by the Old 
Testament citations, as all must be who 
take literal scripture texts for authority, 
instead of the truth. His reply to these 
claims was first, that Abraham offered sac- 
rifice and practiced circumcision, matters 
not lawful under the Gospel. The inference 
is that Christians are not bound by the 
practices of the Patriarch. In the second 
place, our author affirms that "neither 
offensive nor defensive wars were lawful 
to the Israelites of their own will." They 
must inquire of the oracle of God before 



Page Seventy 

going to war. Again the wars of the Jews 
against the wicked nations were simply 
"figures of the inward war of the true Chris- 
tian against their spiritual enemies, in which 
we overcome the devil, the world and the 
flesh/' Barclay, however, is happier when 
he opposes war with spiritual weapons, and 
rules it out of the Christian life for men or 
nations, as a monstrous perversion of the 
Gospel of Christ. 

It is no part of the purpose of this little 
book to present Barclay as a source of in- 
fallible authority. On the other hand our 
hope is that it may help inspire Friends 
to a study of their fundamental principle; 
to see plainly that conformity to popular 
doctrine is none of their concern, and failure 
to conform need in no w r ay disturb them. 
Their divine teacher is internal, and their 
test of truth the witness within their own 
hearts. 



APPENDIX. 



The various points emphasized in this lit- 
tle book seem to present topics for definite 
study and consideration, and possibly for well- 
planned discussion. 1 

THE SOURCE OF AUTHORITY. 

For instance : Is the spirit a better source 
of Authority than the church or Scriptures? 
(p. 9). This topic will afford a good oppor- 
tunity for considering the difference in view- 
point between the Society of Friends and the 
Catholic and Protestant Churches. Other 
points will suggest themselves as topics for 

a In connection with the reading of this book, we 
suggest that attention be given the Thirty-nine 
Articles of the Episcopal Church, to be found in 
the Book of Common Prayer, and also to the 
Westminster Confession of Faith, to be had in 
pamphlet form at any Presbyterian book store. 

Page Seventy-One 



Pagk Sevknty-Two 

papers or discussion. Is revelation individual 
in its manifestation? Should precedence be 
given to present revelation over past revela- 
tion? 

THE SAVING LIGHT. 

In this connection the nature and effect 
of what is theologically called "original sin" 
comes to the front, (pp. 12, 13). The ques- 
tion of Predestination (pp. 19-20) may re- 
ceive careful treatment. Barclay is full of 
suggestiveness in the entire chapter, which 
treats of the "Universal and Saving Light." 
The questions likely to be suggested are many. 
Is the light universal, and is it sufficient to 
salvation? Is salvation simply release from 
future punishment ? Were there Christians 
before Christ? (p. 22). Do men have the 
light without knowing it? What is spiritual 
consciousness? Does the successful operation 
of the light involve obedience to it? 

THE CHURCH. 

Barclay's definition of what may be called 



Page Seventy-Three 

the church universal and the church particular 
is worthy of consideration, (p. 28 to 33). 
Does the membership in the church universal 
have the wide range claimed? (p. 29). Con- 
sider the matter of church membership based 
on the accident of birth, (p. 31). Should 
birthright membership in the Society of 
Friends be continued ? Is the holding of pub- 
lic office incompatible with concerned mem- 
bership in the Society? (p. ^2). 

MINISTRY. 

Under this head one of the most vital 
testimonies and practices of our Society is 
treated. The topic cannot be too thoroughly 
and thoughtfully considered at the present 
time. Does Barclay's statement as to the 
source of the minister's call and authority set 
up a standard likely to discourage Friends 
from engaging in vocal service in our meet- 
ings? (p. 33). Qoes the minister need, or 
should he look for the approval of his hearers? 
Should the hearer be subject to the minister? 



Page Skventy-Four 

(p. 34). Is there a difference in spiritual 
ability, and if so are the specially endowed 
entitled to extra honor and consideration? 

(p. 36). 

In our time how much material assistance 
should those who travel and speak in meet- 
ings receive? (pp. 37-42). Can a salaried 
preacher have a spiritual call to the ministry? 
Is all equipment for the ministry freely receiv- 
ed. Is it desirable that ministers be educate* 1 
men and women? 

WORSHIP. 

Consider the broad definition of worship, 
(p. 44). Is there any point at which a per- 
son can absolutely tell that his act of wor- 
ship is entirely independent of his own will? 
Is there any spiritual value in a prearranged 
form of worship? What is the real meaning 
and value of silence? (pp. 48-49). Are the 
conclusions of Barclay applicable to our time? 

Is a mere belief in certain doctrines a test 
of Christianity? (p. 50). Admitting that 



Page Seventy- Five 

forms are unnecessary, can worship be entire- 
ly informal? Is all prearranged discourse in 
our meetings to be condemned? 

Is it the function of prayer to change the 
attitude of God toward us, or our attitude 
towards Him? Would spontaneous singing 
in our meetings today be helpful? (pp. 55- 
56). Must inspired thoughts be delivered the 
moment they are received, or will they keep 
for future delivery? 

JUSTIFICATION. 

Assuming that Barclay's repudiation of 
Justification, as held by Luther and the Cal- 
vinists, is correct, what function does faith 
perform, if any, in making one just? Does 
faith have anything to do in producing the 
"birth of Christ" in men? 

Is there a sense in which men need re- 
demption from the stored-up sins of the past? 
(p. 61). Is it possible for men to be moral 
simply in their own wills? Is a reasonably 
right life an evidence of inward spiritual re- 
newal ? 



Page Seventy-Six 

If a man's life is mainly in the right, need 
he be spiritually nervous touching the influ- 
ences which have produced that result ? What 
is perfection from the practical standpoint? 

PEACE. 

Should the desire for peace be based sole- 
ly on religious grounds? Are Barclay's com- 
parisons and conclusions (pp. 67-68) sound 
and correct? 

Should the Old Testament authority, ap- 
parently sustaining war, trouble the Christian 
advocate of peace? 

Should the statements of the founders of 
our Society be accepted as a final governing 
authority in our time? 



INDEX. 

Apology, The, full title, 3 ; published in Latin and 
English, 4; attacks Westminster Confession of 
Faith, 7. 

Apostolic Mother Church, The, 33. 

Appendix, 71. 

Arnoldus, Nicolaus, referred to. 

Barclay, David, father of Robert, becomes a Friend, 

5. 
Barclay, Robert, born, 1684, 6; wrote first essay, 6; 

wrote The Apology, 6; testimony of Fox and 

Penn, regarding, 8 ; death of, 8. 

Christians by birth, criticised, 32. 

Christian virtues, waned after persecution lessened, 

31. 
Christ, knowledge of, 12. 
Christian religion, not a mere belief, 50. 
Church, infallibility of, 9. 

Church universal, defined, 28; composed of, 29. 
Church particular, defined, 30. 
Conclusion, chapter title, 66. 

Page Seventy-Seven 



Page Skventy-Eight 

Day for rest and worship, 46. 

Fellowship, worship helps build, 45. 

Hodgkin, Thomas, refers to Apology, 6. 
Immediate revelation, 9. 

Jesus, precepts of, contrasted with war practices, 67. 

Justification, title of chapter, 58; Catholic theory 
of, 59; Presbyterian theory of, 58; both repu- 
diated, by Barclay, 60; theological meaning of 
denied, 62; means making one just, 62. 

Membership, birthright, 31. 

Ministry, The, chapter title, 28 ; a free gift, 37. 

Minister, how made, 33 ; value determined, 34 ; qual- 
ifications not freely received, 41 ; needs of to 
be met, 42 ; living of uncertain, 43. 

Morality, self-developed, 64. 

Paul, the Apostle, quoted, 62. 

Perfection, progressive, 64. 

Preacher, The, not the real teacher, 35. 

Professional ministry, 38 ; not divinely called, 39. 

Prayer, must be under influence of Spirit, 54; is 
both outward and inward, 54; formal, con- 
demned, 54; formal, Friends refused to ac- 
knowledge, 55. 

Peace, a demand of the Gospel, 69. 



Page Seventy-Nine 

Redemption, two-fold, outward and inward, 61. 

Sabbath, Jewish, reference to, 46. 

Sabbath, Christian, not a continued type of Jew- 
ish, 46. 

Saving opportunity, equality of, 27. 

Scriptures not the fountain, 11. 

Silence, its place in worship, 47 ; a time of prepa- 
ration, 48; not the main thing in itself, 49. 

Singing of psalms endorsed, 55; part of God's wor* 
ship, 55; must proceed from the Spirit, 56. 

Spirit, revelation of, 14; suppressing the, 57. 

Teachers and pastors spiritually injured by com- 

panionship with princes, 31. 
Titles, worthlessness of, 35. 
Troubling thoughts not helpful, 52. 

Universal and saving light, chapter title, 17; refer- 
red to under different names, 21 ; Christian 
fathers quoted on, 23 ; proven by Peter, 24 ; 
heathen philosophers on, 21. 

War, incompatible with Gospel of Christ, 66; Old 
Testament on, 69 ; opposed with spiritual weap- 
ons, 70. 

Westminster Confession, reference to, 58 ; quota- 
tion from, 59. 



Page Eighty 

Women preachers endorsed, 36. 

Women, Paul's reproof of ignored, 37. 

Worship, chapter title, 44; based on secret inspira- 
tion of Spirit, 44; an obligation due to God, 45; 
collective side of, 45; not a propitiatory act, 
46; form of not prescribed by Christ, 50; no 
form in New Testament, 51; set program in 
repudiated, 51. 



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